1. Field of Invention
The present invention pertains to emergency enclosures and garments. In particular, the present invention pertains to inflatable enclosures that provide a contaminant free environment for one or more individuals.
2. Description of Related Art
Protective suits and protective enclosures have traditionally been designed to meet the extreme needs of military, police and emergency response personnel. Such suits/enclosures are typically designed for prolonged use by individuals performing assigned missions within dangerous and/or contaminated environments and/or under extreme conditions.
Such suits are typically designed of durable materials that resist tearing under stressful use under extreme conditions (e.g. heat, cold, wet, ice snow) and are typically designed for use with masks, hats, gloves, and/or complex breathing apparatus. For example, protective suits for firefighters are typically made of thick insulated, flame resistant material and often contain a breathing apparatus and/or filters that are integrated within the suit. Suits for biohazard response teams are typically designed for active use moving within and cleaning up contaminated areas (e.g., setting up barriers, moving and operating cleanup equipment).
Protective enclosures have also typically been designed for extreme conditions. For example, emergency protective enclosures for fire-fighters are designed using materials that insulate an occupant against extreme heat within hostile environments. Protective enclosures for military personnel are typically self-standing and are typically designed with sufficient strength to support an ongoing military mission in an exposed outdoor environment. As a result, such structures are heavy and cumbersome. Further, conventional protective enclosures typically have pump and/or filters positioned outside of the protective enclosure. This forces an individual to leave the protected area in order to operate or service the pump and/or filters, thereby risking exposure to contamination.
Cost has typically not been a factor in the design of such traditional protective suits and enclosures. Such suits and enclosures have typically been made for use in limited quantities to meet the needs of specific groups financed by Federal, state and/or local governments budgets. As a result, such suits and enclosures are typically not available to and/or are outside the budget and/or either exceed or otherwise do not meet the needs of the general civilian population. For these reasons, very few members of the civilian population have access to any form of protective suit or enclosure that is capable of temporarily protecting them from a contaminated environment. Still fewer would have sufficiently timely access to a protective suit or enclosure during a time of emergency to assure protection against contamination.
Unfortunately, due to relatively recent changes in technology and national/world events, the risk of accidents and/or attacks that would lead to the harmful or even deadly exposure of large civilian populations to contamination by harmful or even deadly substances is ever increasing. For example, accidental and/or intentional train derailments, tractor-trailer accidents, chemical/processing plant accidents, chemical and fuel storage depot explosions, nuclear power-plant accidents, etc., could result in catastrophe for thousands of individuals unless they have access to either a protective suit or enclosure capable of protecting them during a temporary and/or long term period of living in a contaminated environment. Further, the constant threat of a direct terrorist biological and/or bio-chemical attack, explosion of a radioactive dirty-bomb in an urban business sector, explosion of a small scale nuclear device, and/or sabotage of even a small operational nuclear power plant could result is the release of clouds of dust and radioactive fallout that would endanger thousands of civilians living and/or working within the proximate area or down-wind of the location of attack.
Fortunately, the detrimental impact of any of these scenarios can be greatly diminished by providing civilians with even minimal protection. For example, most conventional contaminants are either inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Even most radio-active fallout will only result in nominal damage so long as radio-active dust and/or other particles are not inhaled into the lungs and/or an individual is not subjected to long term external contact with radio-particles that typically settle upon the body within a contaminated environment in the form of dust and/or rain and are subsequently absorbed via the skin, eyes, nose and mouth into the body and/or allowed to settle on food that is later ingested. Therefore, by providing civilians with nominal external protection, an air supply filtered of organic and/or inorganic particulate matter and/or noxious gases, and safe access to clean food and water sources, the damage to civilian populations caused by such individual accidents and/or attacks may be greatly diminished.